Black Empire (AoC Universe)
The Black Empire '''refers to Middle-Earth under the thrall of the insidious demon princes. It can also refer to the territory they occupied. The Empire collapsed during the Sin War, when the Aesir invaded Middle-Earth. Lore After the Fall of the Pantheon, the rebellious archangel Sargamon turned to the worlds that his former masters had created in order to bring chaos to them. He knew that the process of destroying Middle-Earth would take a while, thus he decided to corrupt the planet from within, to weaken its natural defences. The '''Seeds of Discord crafted by his hand crash-landed into Middle-Earth, each sinful Seed going in a different direction, and out of them rose the parasitic eldritch horrors. As soon as they emerged from their shells, the demons began their plans for world domination. This gave birth to the Black Empire '''(the period in which it was active referred to as "Hell on Earth"). Each of the seven princes had a share of the Empire and its inhabitants, using the native populations as slave labour. The borders of each section of the Empire changed year on year, as though they shared a common evil, each prince worked to increase his own fortunes at the expense of the others, resulting in violent struggles that destabilised the planet. The seat of power for each demon prince was usually the capital city of their empire, usually named after themselves (e.g. the city of '''Belphatar being the capital of Belphegor's empire). The Citadel (stronghold) of each demon prince was located within the empire, and each citadel was topped by a menacing construct known as the Spire of Darkness, which was gradually filled overtime with black energy. If it reached maximum capacity, the Spire would overcharge, becoming a near-unstoppable instrument of magical destruction. No demon prince managed to fully top the Spire, but Lucithel, the most powerful of the seven, nearly did so - twice. The capitcal cities of the Black Empires were also the sites of demon worship. The princes were powerful in their own right, but enjoyed having their egos stroked by subordinates, and thus comissioned great temples to be built in their names. The temples always had unnecessarily-long titles, such as the Sacred Temple of the Most Revered Sovereign Overlord and Autocrat of all the Midlings being the name of Lucithel's temple. According to Astraroth, who later used pieces of the temples to construct demonic shrines, people could summon the spirits of the demon princes via worship and prayers. The Black Empire was destroyed, along with the evil powers of the demon princes, when the Aesir intervened in mortal affairs for the first time, raising the Carnal Forces against their hellish oppressors. With the demons gone, the natural magics of Middle-Earth were allowed to flourish, restoring the beauty of the land. Division of the Black Empire Not all demon princes had equal shares of the Empire. Heck, they individually lorded over so many people that some consider there to be have been seven different 'Black Empires' (flavour lore). *'Asmodeus '''had around 14% of the Empire. His domain was located to the south of Middle-Earth, with the capital (and largest city) being Azmodia. The Lord of Sin fought furiously to maintain his share of the Empire, with Leviathan, Belphegor, Belzeebub and Lucithel all attempting to shave pieces off at one point. *'Belphegor had a share around 6%, making his empire around the smallest. This is likely because he was extremely lazy. His capital city, Belphatar, was the first to be destroyed by the Carnal Armies, and he was thus the first demon prince to be de-crowned. *Sathanas' had a share around 8%, though it was formerly much higher (45%). His proclamation to be the Demon King (rather than merely a 'lord') angered Lucithel who telepathically commanded his forces into Sathjatar and destroyed it. Mammon, taking advantage of Sathan's weakness, then invaded from the west, taking the Hellfields. Sathan's capital has always been Sathjatar, though after its destruction it was never rebuilt, so the defacto major city was Sathion. *'Belzeebub claimed 10% of the empire. He is the only demon prince to have changed capitals, going from Belial to Belzari after the former was destroyed by Asmodeus (Sathanus merely rebuilt his citadel somewhere else). *Leviathan claimed 10% of the empire also. He also controlled the waters via Atlantis, telepathically spawning hundreds of hydrolords to do his bidding. This gave him the title Lord of the Ocean. *Lucithel had 22% of the empire, likely because he was so imbued with power that his telepathic influence ran out faster and thus rendered him unable to expand too far. That said, he was the most powerful - magically-speaking - of the seven, and was virtually unstoppable in combat against the others. The only contemporary he feared was Mammon, and it annoyed him how his Empire was larger. The two princes made an unofficial pact not to go to war with each other, lest they destroy Middle-Earth. *Mammon was the most successful demon prince, claiming nearly a third (30%) of the empire. His psychological-control abilities were easily the best in the Empire, and helped him recruit millions into the folds of his Demonic Warriors. The Lord of Greed also commissioned powerful demon chiefs, known as '''Dreadnoughts, to watch over his underlings while he dictated affairs from his temple in the city of Avaricia. Category:Aeon of the Champion locations Category:Aeon of the Champion articles Category:Kingdoms Category:Smurf Manian's articles